Remembering Pete Seeger

The last time that we saw the legendary musician, activist and all-around charming guy was last fall, at Housing Works when the New Press honored Seeger and actor and activist Harry Belafonte with the nonprofit public-interest publisher’s annual Social Justice Award.

While accepting his award, Seeger told stories of prep school shenanigans, his attempt to get a job at a newspaper as a twenty-year-old and his beginnings in folk music. In a concession to his age, Seeger confided that he now “bought his apples one at a time.”

The musician strummed and tapped his banjo while leading the crowd in a sing-along of a goofy song about the eccentricities of the English language called “English is Crazy.”

Watch Seeger perform the song last September at FarmAid 2013, backstage at the Saratoga Center for the Performing Arts: